November 12, 2002

Pindito anchored at Kofiau (01° 16' 91" S, 129° 43' 66" E)

In the early morning we sailed for the Kofiau islands, 70 kilometers to the north. We arrived at 06.30, and anchored in a large bay ringed by low islands.

The vegetation team descended on Eftorobi, one of the western islands of the Kofiau group. A logging company had cleared a large part of the island's forest in the early 1980s, looking for Pometia and Intsia timber. As the island is flat, they had used heavy equipment to extract the timber. The forest we saw was very degraded: trees only grew to 4 meters, and the ground was open and dry, very hot, with many grasses. In contrast, a small patch of natural forest remained; here the atmosphere was cool and moist, the large trees were covered in vines. The contrast was important for us; by identifying what trees remained after logging, we can offer suggestions for rehabilitating other areas of damaged forest, using local trees resistant to the changed conditions. We were guided through this by Pak Jan, obviously a village joker. After drinking green coconuts in the parish grove, he held one up on the end of his parang (machete); "Don't forget to pay the Church for this" he reminded us sternly, holding the moment, before bursting out into a stream of giggles.

Kofiau is the site of a proposed Suaka Margasatwa Laut (marine reserve). We are here to gather information of marine biodiversity and conservation value, threats and opportunities that was specifically requested by the head of conservation for Papua Province. Things are looking good. Both Gerry and Emre broke personal records here: Emre recorded 133 coral species above 10 meters on his first dive; his highest total ever for that depth. So far, Emre has added 37 species to the known list of corals from the Raja Ampat islands, making a total of 502 identified corals for this area. Gerry's 284 reef fish species on one dive on the second day is the most species he has recorded during any one dive anywhere.

The shallow portions of the reefs show considerable damage from blast fishing and cyanide used to stun fishes destined for sale alive in the restaurants of Hong Kong and mainland China. Despite this damage, corals are abundant and impressive. One stately Porites coral formed an imposing boulder more than six meters high - a survivor of six centuries, or more.

Today Gerry Allen watched a 3-meter long hammerhead shark inspect an oblivious Rod Salm from 5 meters distance; the shark cruised slowly by without stopping. NOTE - that's the first big shark of the trip, after about 233 diver hours.